SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. – John Ryan Murphy hadn’t seen the pitch in several weeks, probably not since he caught Archie Bradley in a bullpen session before the beginning of Cactus League play. It was a slider the Diamondbacks reliever had been tinkering with for some time, and it was inconsistent.

The next time Murphy saw it was Sunday, when Bradley unleashed one in a spring game against the Reds. This one came in hard and dove away fast. It was fouled back, but Murphy was impressed. Like a kid hitting a growth spurt, a few weeks had made a big difference.

“It looks comfortable to him. I think he’s maybe ahead of where he thought it would be,” Murphy said. “It’s pretty damn good.”

It’s not as if anyone could look at Bradley’s 2017 season and say this guy’s screwed without a slider. The 25-year-old right-hander pitched his way from rotation reject to long reliever to back-end dynamo, posting a 1.73 ERA and actually earning one MVP vote. Although...

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